Overview
Shudra (Sanskrit: Śūdra), also spelt Shoodra, is one of the four varnas in the Hindu class and social order described in ancient Indian texts. The term has been variously rendered in English as a caste or a social class. In the theoretical scheme of the four varnas, Shudras were associated with labour and service-oriented occupations.
The word Shudra appears in the Rigveda and is found in later Hindu texts such as the Manusmriti, the Arthashastra, the dharmaśāstras and the jyotiḥśāstras. These texts discuss the duties, status and place of Shudras within the broader varna framework, although the descriptions vary across sources and periods.
According to Richard Gombrich's study of Buddhist texts, particularly those concerning Sri Lankan Buddhist and Tamil Hindu society, the categories Vaishya and Shudra did not correspond to clearly defined social units even in the ancient period, with various groups being subsumed under each term. In the medieval era (roughly AD 500–1500), although society was still described in terms of the four classes, this classification appears to have become largely irrelevant in practice.
Early Indian textual sources also indicate that the social roles ascribed to Shudras were not always confined to labour. In some cases, Shudras are recorded as having participated in the coronation of kings, or as serving in roles such as amatya ("ministers") and even rajas ("kings"), suggesting that the application of the category in historical contexts was more fluid than the theoretical varna model would imply.
References
Adapted from the English Wikipedia article on Shudra.